The problem of disposing of stale bakery products in an economical manner has been a problem confronting housewives for many years. Rather then dispose such stale products in the garbage, economy-minded housewives are inclined to crush the products with a rolling pin but this operation requires preparation of a suitable surface, crushing the products with a conventional rolling pin, and then gathering up the crushed products which usually have scattered somewhat widely and the resulting products being a mixture of pieces of many different sizes. Such a mixture is not particularly suitable for use as conventional bread crumbs and in order to produce useable bread crumbs, it is necessary to extensively roll the material with a rolling pin in an effort to produce a more or less uniform size of relatively fine products. Further, cleaning up the operation at the completion thereof is a somewhat tedious job, with the result that many housewives find it easier to put the stale bread in the garbage.
By use of the present invention, it is possible to comminute stale bakery products such as bread and the like in a sanitary, non-messy manner by the employment of a series of vertically stacked colanders which are described hereinafter. It is recognized that colanders used in culinary operations are old and well known. In general, the commonest type comprise a somewhat hemisphereical or concaved configuration, at least the lower portion of which is perforated, usually with holes of uniform size, and leg members or other supporting means are provided to support the colander so that the open top is disposed substantially horizontally.
Using colanders or similar perforated devices for comminuting or disintegrating food products is old and well known. Examples of typical, somewhat conventional colander are shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 720,293, to Stocking, dated Feb. 10, 1903, and 1,927,192, to Werner, dated Sept. 17, 1933. An even older U.S. Pat. No. 207,974, to McConnell, dated Sept. 10, 1878, shows a utensil which is sometimes referred to as a "ricer", in which replacable perforated bottom members in a receptacle are inter-changeable for bottom members having different sizes of perforations therein. Further, U.S. Pat. No. 2,150,488, to Camenzind, dated Mar. 14, 1939, shows a cracker crumber in which a somewhat shearing type of apparatus is employed to effect comminution of crackers. The use of a series of sieves in stacked relationship, respectively for classifying different sizes of particles by arranging the coarsest seive uppermost and the finest sieve lowermost also are well known in the mineral industry and also in certain chemical laboratories. Examples of such devices are shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,085,516, to Wilson et al, dated Jan. 27, 1914 and 1,714,208, to Boix, dated May 21, 1929. It is to be noted however that apparatus of this type used in the mineral and chemical industries usually have flat sieves and do not lend themselves to the application of pressure means to force the material through the openings of the sieves.
In the present invention, certain features of prior devices have been combined to produce an efficient and effective apparatus to operate upon stale bakery products and the like for purposes of comminuting the same, details of which are set forth below.